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Crosscurrents

Oakland votes to ban facial recognition technology

Eric Risberg
/
AP Images
A security camera in the Financial District of San Francisco, the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition by police.

The Oakland City Council voted to ban the use of facial recognition technology last week. The software is used by police around the country to find wanted suspects and find missing children. But civil liberties advocates say the technology can lead to wrongful arrests and convictions.

"The other worry is that this technology just isn't all that accurate, and it could lead to false convictions. The technology is pretty accurate for identifying white men. But the darker the skin, the more errors come up."

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